So you didn't sudo there to do a restart.. I run ssh on ubuntu without any issues.

But yeah linux section might be better suited for this question.

What issues are you having with samba? I normally just use my linux boxes as shell boxes, don't see a need for samba - but have never had any issues with it in the past when setting it up for testing, etc.

But sure scp or sftp just as easy and more secure method of putting/getting files off a linux box.

As usual, BudMan's advice is spot-on. Let me see if I can elaborate a little though. With SAMBA, its usually as simple as installing its package from the repository and configuring the service. (It gets a little more complicated on Fedora/RHEL/CentOS when SELinux gets involved, but its still not THAT difficult.)

If you're using a firewall (such as UFW, which is default in Ubuntu), you will also need to allow SAMBA through. I will try to help you with this if you need it, but I don't remember much of UFW's syntax off-hand. (Or iptables, for that matter, and I actually use that one!) I believe that UFW also has a nice GUI configuration tool you can use. (The package is called gufw if I'm not mistaken.)

You might also consider checking to make sure that the services you want are running on startup. You can use sysctl, which I believe is the method Canonical officially recommends, but I prefer the ncurses-based Debian Runlevel configuration tool.

As to a host firewall on local secure network - you could just disable it if you ask me. If the network is managed by you, and you control access to this network - ie no hostile type machines are on it. All machines on it are under your control, then the added overhead of management of a local host firewall seems overkill. Control access via firewall at your trust border (gateway)

I don't run any firewalls on my local linux/bsd boxes - other than the one that is acting as my gateway/firewall to the public NET.

Now on my vps that is directly connected to the public internet, then yes I run it - and have it locked down to only allow MY IPs access to services that are for management and only allow public access to those services that are needed to be accessed via public. Since my trust border in that type of case is the HOST, then yeah host firewall makes sense.

If this is your HOME network, I can not see a reason to add all the management overhead of running firewalls on every host. Now if the host moves off this network to networks with possible hostiles on it - then yes your trust border is again your hosts interface in that sort of scenario.

As to a host firewall on local secure network - you could just disable it if you ask me. If the network is managed by you, and you control access to this network - ie no hostile type machines are on it. All machines on it are under your control, then the added overhead of management of a local host firewall seems overkill. Control access via firewall at your trust border (gateway)

I don't run any firewalls on my local linux/bsd boxes - other than the one that is acting as my gateway/firewall to the public NET.

Now on my vps that is directly connected to the public internet, then yes I run it - and have it locked down to only allow MY IPs access to services that are for management and only allow public access to those services that are needed to be accessed via public. Since my trust border in that type of case is the HOST, then yeah host firewall makes sense.

If this is your HOME network, I can not see a reason to add all the management overhead of running firewalls on every host. Now if the host moves off this network to networks with possible hostiles on it - then yes your trust border is again your hosts interface in that sort of scenario.

Another vote for Webmin from me, I also don't run a firewall on my server as the router handles all that and I hide various services running on my machine behind a reverse proxy and use SSL.

Lets ignore samba for a second then. You're trying to connect SSH but you can't get it to work? Please elaborate. What are you using to connect? Putty using the box's IP and port 22? Do you get prompted for a username / password etc or is the connection flat out refused?

so on the desktop - verify that your listening, and on the standard 22 port. What does your sshd_config look like? Do a simple netstat -an, are you listening on 22?

if your listening and you can not connect, then firewall is blocking. You can ping the desktop from laptop can you not?

Or is your laptop wireless and desktop is wired? And you have AP isolation or Client isolation, etc. guest wireless? There are different security settings on some wireless routers that do not allow wireless to create a connection to a wired box. But wired can create to wireless.

Can you ping?

If you can not ping - look in laptop arp table after you try and ping. Do you see the mac?